Foreigners may travel to get home

New rules to help stranded people leave NZ

WELLINGTON: Foreigners stranded in New Zealand will start leaving the country today.

Tens of thousands of holidaymakers will be able to make a ‘‘safe, orderly exit’’, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said.

The Government announced a plan yesterday to enable the safe, orderly exit of scores of foreign nationals stranded in New Zealand under the Covid19 lockdown.

‘‘When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the Government rightly . . . limited the movement of people so as to restrict the spread of Covid19, but it is clear that many foreign nationals travelling here do not have the resources or capability to adequately selfisolate, and wish to return home.

‘‘We have taken the time and care to develop a seriously detailed plan for the exit of foreign nationals, without endangering the lives of others.’’

Under the managed exit plan:

■ Foreign nationals returning home will be considered to be engaging in ‘‘essential travel’’, and therefore permitted to travel domestically (whether by air or land) when they have a confirmed and scheduled international flight out of New Zealand.

■ Foreign governments will be allowed to organise charter flights to repatriate their citizens, but only if they can satisfy New Zealand health requirements.

■ Commercial capacity between New Zealand and Europe will be increased, by

New Zealand approving a second daily flight between Doha and Auckland by Qatar Airways.

It is expected that the first foreign governmentorganised charter flight, operated by Air New Zealand, could leave New Zealand as early as this evening.

Commercial options continue to be available to stranded foreign nationals.

Mr Peters said the public health and economic considerations of New Zealand and New

Zealanders were paramount in the decision to facilitate the managed exit of stranded foreign nationals.

‘‘We are conscious that returning foreign nationals to their home countries will reduce the potential pressure on health services in New Zealand, and reduce the risk of welfare issues developing for those people who are stranded and unable to afford to be here much longer.’’

❛ We are conscious that returning foreign nationals to their home countries will reduce the potential pressure on health services in New Zealand and reduce the risk of welfare issues developing

He emphasised that travel restrictions associated with Level 4 would continue to apply for all foreign nationals, except for those travelling to leave the country.

‘‘If you do not have a confirmed international ticket, then you must stay in selfisolation. Stay put and continue to follow Level 4 guidelines and maintain your bubble.

‘‘New Zealanders returning home from overseas will continue to be subject to strict screening and selfisolation requirements.

‘‘Given that Air New Zealand intends to fly charter flights from New Zealand to Europe for European governments, we will explore the extent to which New Zealanders can return in the planes on the way back.’’

Mr Peters said foreign nationals seeking to leave New Zealand would not be allowed to leave selfisolation to travel if they were at risk of Covid19.

This includes anyone who:

■ Has been diagnosed with Covid19.

■ Has symptoms consistent with Covid19.

■ Is waiting for Covid19 results.

■ Is a close contact of a suspected/probable/confirmed case of Covid19.

■ Has travelled internationally in past 14 days.

‘‘All passengers will also be required to complete any health requirements as necessary at their airport of departure,’’ he said.

WELLINGTON: Outgoing police commissioner Mike Bush has admitted police have failed to carry out the level of checks on recent arrivals to New Zealand that had been promised by the Government.

Those coming into the country are one of the highest risk groups, as potential carriers of the virus.

When people arrive at the border they are quarantined if they have symptoms or do not have a plan for selfisolation.

Those with no symptoms and who have a plan are sent home and told to selfisolate — which means not leaving the home and having no close contact with anyone.

Appearing in front of Parliament’s epidemic response committee via video link on his last day as commissioner yesterday, Mr Bush was questioned about the powers being used by the police under the Level 4 alert, and how rigorous the checks were on people sent home to effectively selfquarantine.

Directorgeneral of health Ashley Bloomfield had said anyone sent home to selfisolate after arriving in New Zealand would receive a visit from police within three days.

Mr Bush admitted yesterday that had not happened, and it was only in the previous 24 hours that they had been able to contact ‘‘almost all’’ of those, by using phone location technology.

He told MPs there were 1573 in hotels under ‘‘managed’’ selfisolation, where police and other security were constantly present, and 116 in quarantine and being tested, with Covid19 symptoms.

However, there were about 4000 people who were sent home to selfisolate.

In the initial days it was ‘‘very difficult’’ for police to find out where they were and ensure they were following the rules, Mr Bush told the committee.

‘‘In the last 48 hours police and other government agencies have worked really together to build a technology solution . . . In the last 24 hours almost all of those people have been checked on with the use of that technology.’’

There were also random checks, done in person by police officers.

It was the ‘‘intent’’ of the police to visit each person within the three days, he said, but they were unable to do that.

Given the extremely high risk of the thousands left to selfisolate at home, committee chairman and National Party leader Simon Bridges questioned whether the police had their priorities right.

‘‘Wouldn’t it be much better. . . if we policed quarantining rather more than we did what neighbourhood people were in or what beach they’re on?’’

Mr Bush agreed it was an ‘‘absolute priority’’, but police needed to draw on technology first to get the necessary information out to frontline officers.

Until the tech system was created, the police were recording the number of visits to people’s homes, but there was not enough data to show whether they were ‘‘general compliance’’ checks or for nonmanaged selfisolation.

There has been ‘‘no shortage of effort by everyone involved to get this right’’, he said.

He also defended the ‘‘graduated’’ approach to lockdown enforcement and reassured the committee the police were applying their discretion fairly and consistently.

Earlier, public law expert John Hopkins told the committee relying on police discretion without clear, transparent guidelines was problematic.

‘‘Relying on the discretion of individual officers, primarily police officers, is not in my view sustainable in the longer term.

‘‘It risks conflict with such officers and Civil Defence personnel . . . To keep everybody on board requires a move away from the emergency phase and the natural instinct of leaders in an emergency to use discretion and instead create or publicise clear rules that are justifiable based on the evidence.’’

Mr Bush said the focus on education, and then enforcement as a last resort was the right one.

‘‘We will only use those powers when people are persistent and seriously breaching that compliance.’’